Vacation offers no respite

I waited five days into my vacation to learn of events in the real world beyond the beaches, beyond the dreamy decadence that defines a weeklong summer escape, always lovely but never long enough.

It helped that our resort at the tip of Cape Cod had no Wi-Fi, so we couldn't easily check our phones and laptops for news. That was largely OK, as other lures demanded our attention — sunshine, shopping, cocktails, an orgiastic assortment of restaurants and shows. Where to dine? Which beach today? Do we really need that second martini? Such pressing questions needed answers; the rest of the world could wait.

That's the great thing about vacation — the suspension of reality and surrender to mindless joy. You realize in your sun-addled brain that the Earth is still spinning, which likely means that something horrific is happening somewhere. But for seven blissful days, it doesn't concern you.

On Wednesday morning, though, while waiting for my companions to pack up the coolers, I flipped on the TV and turned to CNN. The protests in Ferguson were heating up. The police officer who shot unarmed teen Michael Brown had been identified. The usual suspects were drawing battle lines in the latest race-based scandal to dominate the media.

Then the television image turned chilling. Suddenly, there was a man on his knees, clad in an orange robe. Hovering over him was a knife-wielding masked man dressed in black.

By now we all know the gruesome details. The doomed man in orange was James Foley, a 40-year-old journalist from New Hampshire, who disappeared two years ago in Syria. The masked man was his executioner, a gutless ISIS savage who beheaded Foley after warning in a distinctly British accent that more Americans would be next.

We've since received something of a crash course in evil, in the form of this monstrous Islamic militant group that's even too violent for al-Qaida. ISIS has launched genocidal campaigns against Yazidis and Christians. They've slaughtered thousands of innocent people. They've posted videos of crucifixions and impaled the severed heads of soldiers onto poles.

President Barack Obama was also on vacation when the video of Foley's beheading was released. Obama, who like many middle-aged men has developed a preternatural obsession with the game of golf, was spending two weeks on Martha's Vineyard with his family. On Wednesday, he called Foley's parents and denounced ISIS in a brief press conference.

"Let's be clear about ISIL," he said. "They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence."

If we could wipe these monstrous militants off the face of their Earth, we should do it. Some say we can't, that even an intensive American ground effort could make things worse. Obama said we will be "relentless" in pursuing justice, but we don't really know what that means.

In the meantime, though, we can take out our rage on the president. The image of him hitting the links only moments after addressing Foley's execution has outraged many, primarily conservatives, who have rallied at Obama's insensitivity and said he should have cut short his vacation.

Never mind that Obama has taken only about a third as many vacation days as George W. Bush, or that cancelling his trip would do nothing to help the situation with ISIS. Besides, I'm betting that, regardless of where his head hits the pillow, the president doesn't sleep as well as the rest of us.

We all need a vacation, but some of us never get one. There's no escape, and it must be awful, so let's give the guy a break.